Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) is a Gram-positive anaerobic bacterium that is associated with gastrointestinal disease in humans. Colonization of C. difficile usually occurs in the colon if the natural gut flora is diminished by treatment with antibiotics. An infection can lead to antibiotic-associated diarrhea and sometimes pseudomembranous colitis through the secretion of the glucosylating toxins, toxin A and toxin B (308 and 270 kDa, respectively), which are the primary virulence factors of C. difficile.
Toxin A and toxin B are encoded within the 19 kb pathogenicity locus (PaLoc) by the genes tcdA and tcdB, respectively. Nonpathogenic strains of C. difficile have this locus replaced by an alternative 115 base pair sequence.
Both toxin A and toxin B are potent cytotoxins. These proteins are homologous glucosyltransferases that inactivate small GTPases of the Rho/Rac/Ras family. The resulting disruption in signaling causes a loss of cell-cell junctions, dysregulation of the actin cytoskeleton, and/or apoptosis, resulting in the profound secretory diarrhea that is associated with Clostridium difficile infections (CDI).
In the last decade, the numbers and severity of C. difficile outbreaks in hospitals, nursing homes, and other long-term care facilities increased dramatically. Key factors in this escalation include emergence of hypervirulent pathogenic strains, increased use of antibiotics, improved detection methods, and increased exposure to airborne spores in health care facilities.
Metronidazole and vancomycin represent the currently accepted standard of care for the antibiotic treatment of C. difficile associated disease (CDAD). However, about 20% of patients receiving such treatment experience a recurrence of infection after a first episode of CDI, and up to about 50% of those patients suffer from additional recurrences. Treatment of recurrences represents a very significant challenge, and the majority of recurrences usually occur within one month of the preceding episode.
Accordingly, there is a need for immunogenic and/or therapeutic compositions and methods thereof directed to C. difficile.